“Tattoo on titty saying B.I.G.”

For sometime now, Faith Evans has been talking about this music project she’s been working on and finally we’ve gotten some solid news.  The forthcoming project? Well its a duet album with her and late husband, The Notorious B.I.G. titled The King and I.

“Right now I’m recording this project. That’s something I’ve been thinking and talking about doing with Ms. Wallace for a long time. I’m kind of in the finishing stages,” said Evans on Dame Dash‘s radio show.

Through her Instagram page she has been documenting the studio process with a series of photos, using the hashtag #TKAI.  Her latest IG post is a photo of her holding a glass of champagne in front of the Warner Bros. signage, with the caption that reads “Celebrating BIG things! #TKAI coming soon.”  Evans has also updated fans that the LP’s release slated is for this upcoming September and a possible first single will debut this summer.  This project is something Notorious B.I.G. fans should look forward to because the album will include never heard before material from B.I.G.

“I had no idea how I was even going to go about it, but it’s been coming along pretty awesome,” Evans included. “If he was alive, I know ultimately we would have done something like this. But the way this stuff is coming together and the way I’m using his vocals, it’s giving this stuff new life. I think people are really going to enjoy it.”

It’s nice and exciting to see Wallace’s widow keeping his music legacy alive years later.  Evans and Wallace were both signed to Bad Boy Records and married on August 4th 1994, just after weeks of meeting at a Bad Boy photo shoot.

Are you anticipating this project?

Suggested Articles:

The Notorious BIG’s Best Duets

Bad Boy Celebrates Twenty Years

The post Faith Evans Readies Notorious B.I.G. Duet Album appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the death of The Notorious B.I.G.

On March 9th, 1997, 24 year-old Biggie was assassinated in Los Angeles, CA. Unfortunately, his murder still remains unsolved – although his career only spanned 5 years, he left an undeniable mark in music, fashion, and art.

Rest in Power Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. Check out rare moments with Biggie on the next few pages.

The post Rare Footage of Notorious B.I.G. Moments appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Christopher Wallace, better know to the world as Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down on March 9, 1997.

While it’s important to mourn the loss of one of the most influential MCs ever, it’s just as important to celebrate the life. The good people over at ego trip scored an interview with Ebon Heath, who lead the design team responsible for the above album cover. You can read the full interview here, and take a look at the two unearthed concept covers down below.

And then it was crazy because once we were doing all the comps we still didn’t know [the graveyard photos] would play such a part in the branding of it. When we were doing all the comps we were still going for the bright shit. And we did rounds and rounds and Puff just wasn’t happy. We had this one that I really thought we’d gotten it, where we were doing a whole clear jewel-case and just silk-screening the packaging on there so everything was clear. And it was just [Big] sort of walking in silhouette through the clouds, like really simple. Even the disc was on silver. Everything was really subtle and beautiful. We did the whole comp like, that’s the winner, that’s the winner!

And yeah, nah. [Puffy] finally wound up choosing that [eventual] shot [from the graveyard], and we just switched to dark. Once he chose that for the cover we just went dark. We went with blind embosses, and we started burning all this type and we did all this shit with ash. Just really trying to push that sense of the fire and the ash. And then even that was pulled back to what it finally became. But this was all still before [Big] passed. All this shit was done before he passed.

The post Unreleased Alternate <em>Life After Death</em> Album Covers appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Every March 9^th, the hip-hop community feels a pinch of pain in their heart when they’re reminded of one of their fallen saviors. This year would have been Christopher Wallace, The Notorious B.I.G.’s 39^th birthday. It makes you think: What would the poet laureate of Brooklyn think if he turned on hot 97 today?

One of my biggest regrets in life is not having been born ten years earlier so I could have been alive and conscious during 1994 when the landmark album Ready to Die dropped. Unfortunately, I wasn’t, and I can only imagine my jaw dropping and my brain throbbing as I played the album on repeat. This album bridged the gap between the people who lived on the streets of Brooklyn and the rest of the world. I would have been learning a history seldom seen in textbooks, spoken not by anyone with a degree in sociology or in psychology, but by a petty hustler turned voice of a frustrated generation.

The first song on Ready to Die, “Things Done Changed,” is one of the most emotional, unapologetic, and bitterly realistic depictions of life ever put to a beat.

shit, it’s hard being young from the slums eatin five cent gums not knowin where your meals comin from

And now the shit’s gettin crazier and major Kids younger than me, they got the Sky grand Pagers

Goin outta town, blowin up Six months later all the dead bodies showin up

It make me wanna grab the nine and the shottie But I gotta go identify the body

Damn, what happened to the summertime cookouts? Everytime I turn around a nigga gettin took out

Shit, my momma got cancer in her breast Don’t ask me why I’m motherfuckin stressed, things done changed

Every time I hear a new rap song, I unfortunately cannot help myself from comparing to this epic portrayal of mid 1990’s life in Brooklyn. Nobody told it like he did; nobody could paint a picture of pain and of struggle like Biggie and I miss that. People come close, but nobody lets us into their lives like he did. He didn’t just open the door and let you take a peak; he opened the door, shoved you in, and showed you the darkest skeletons in his closet.

I wonder what Biggie would think if he was driving his car through his hometown this March 9^th while he celebrated his 39^th birthday. I imagine he’d say something like, “shit my ringtone is worth the same amount as Soulja Boys ringtone?” Maybe he’d be disappointed, maybe he’d be happy, or maybe he wouldn’t care. All I know that is when I turn on the radio on March 9^th, whatever I hear I’m going to instantly compare to “Things Done Changed.” Rest easy Biggie, we miss you down here. – Corey Teich

Things Done Changed- Notorious B.I.G.

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